That Medical Phone Call

You know you need to make a call and book an appointment, but you spend hours - even days - just staring at your phone or your 'to-do list' avoiding that phone call.

I have never been big on procrastination overall. Any homework, any singing or piano event, fundraisers, preparing for appointments and procedures - I usually start far earlier than necessary.
Medical phone calls, though, those I often leave until the last minute.

This infection does not seem to be going away. At all. I have one more day of my full course of antibiotics and I feel no different from the 2nd day after the trip to the ER. Plus, I got a call regarding my results and the second set of samples came back inconclusive.
With the level of pain I was in, you would think the source would be obvious.
And yet, here I sit, still very symptomatic.
The pain is lessened, of course, so the antibiotics seem to have some effect, but evidently not enough.

All day yesterday I sat around with this thought in the back of my mind that I should call my family doctor. But I left it. I did not want to bother him so soon after my last appointment (I am a new patient of his and don't want to become a pest). I haven't yet finished the course of antibiotics, so shouldn't I wait until I finish? But I only have one more day, and if I wind up with severe symptoms on the weekend again, I'll be headed back to the ER and be in the exact same position as last weekend - which was terrible! I also know that I will be back to see him in Feb for prescription refills. I want to wait and see how things go and not make a big deal out of nothing at all.... but if the medication isn't working, if it ends up being something entirely different (like a bladder issue, a problem with my kidneys, or something like gall stones), then I need to get that looked at as soon as possible.

So I broke it down today:
• No one is sure exactly what is going on
• I still have symptoms, so obviously either the medication is not working or it is not something antibiotics can fix
• If it happens to be a super bug or an infection that the antibiotics have helped but not killed, it will come back in extra full force on a weekend when I can't even see my family doctor
• He might be able to order another urine sample or even an ultrasound if he thinks it is necessary
• We have a busy month coming up and I would like these symptoms to be taken care of.

So I finally picked up the phone and booked an appointment for tomorrow. I will see what he says about the symptoms and the treatments and how he would like to proceed.

Medical phone calls should not be as daunting as this seems.

Making the call, however, legitimizes my concerns. It makes it real. Instead of brushing it off as a simple infection that just needs more time, I am admitting that I am frightened and unsure of why I am still experiencing these symptoms.
Once you make the phone call, you are unable to ignore it any longer.